Interview with Christina Brady, CEO & Co-Founder of Luster

Powered by a proprietary generative AI discourse engine, Luster delivers hyper-realistic practice simulations, skill drills, and data-driven insights that proactively identify and close skill gaps before they impact sales performance and revenue. With nearly two decades of full-cycle sales experience and more than ten years of executive leadership experience, Christina has a proven track record of leading individuals and organizations to growth and profitability through creative, scalable, and targeted strategy. Previously, she served as the Chief Strategy Officer at Sales Assembly, Head of Sales Growth at Glassdoor, and Head of Revenue at Groupon, among other roles. Now, as CEO and Co-Founder of Luster, Christina is on a mission to transform how go-to-market teams effectively learn at work.

After experiencing some extreme hardship in my early 20s, I started a job in insurance sales to help get on my feet and support my family. As a prior comedian and improve performer, I enjoyed the challenge and found that sales came naturally to me. I quickly realized that I had a passion for sales, but wanted to find a product that I was excited about selling. That led me to breaking into tech as an account executive, and over the next 15+ years, I worked my way up from an individual contributor to a sales leader and then to an executive.

I’m a people-first leader, and I fully believe that you can learn something from everyone. Your role doesn’t determine your value. I spent years studying the psychology of communication and how it impacts work, self-worth, and effectiveness. Experiencing loss and brief homelessness at a young age has made me realize how time is a precious asset. No one knows how much time they have, and once it’s spent, you can never get it back. People spend over half of their lives at work, and my mission is to make that time as valuable, meaningful and fulfilling as possible. I believe that the only acceptable impact to make on others is a positive one, and it’s what I strive for every day.

Being a woman in tech is hard enough, but when you add being a mother, and now a CEO and co-founder of an AI business, it becomes both challenging and exciting. The community of AI tech company founders and CEOs is small, making this journey even more unique. I aim to use the opportunity to trail blaze the path for women and underrepresented individuals, inspiring them to realize that breaking the glass ceiling is possible for anyone. My mission is to make leadership accessible and attainable for all. 

As a 17-year sales veteran, from full cycle account executive to chief revenue officer, one of the nagging issues I experienced was the inability to understand skill gaps and where they impact buyers and customers. Plus, training is challenging enough, but ensuring that the training “sticks” and actually works was, previous to Luster, impossible.

Practice at work was painful, expensive, awkward, and unscalable.

Luster is the first AI-powered Predictive Enablement™ technology using proprietary generative AI to revolutionize sales practice and SaaS sales learning. We’re the first technology to deliver hyperrealistic practice simulations, skill drills and data-driven insights to sales reps that address individual sales gaps before they impact sales outcomes. Luster not only predicts and closes individual skill gaps, enabling sales teams to sell better and faster, but it also provides quantifiable ROI for sales leaders to measure the impact of their training.

Luster is backed by VC firm High Alpha. Our co-founder and head of business operations & customer success, Wes Craig, had the initial spark for the idea of Luster, utilizing AI for sales reps to practice, and they brought me in as the go-to-market and leadership expert to fully bake and bring the idea to life as the CEO.

At Luster, we’re transforming how go-to-market teams effectively learn and perform at work. Specifically, we want to be a hero to sales enablement and help sales reps feel better prepared and more confident in their customer interactions so they can close more deals and increase revenue. We want to expose enablement and training ROI, and give leaders a prescriptive and data-driven way to coach.

Since 2020, sales enablement has been the number one role in tech to be laid off because they’re not seen as a “revenue center” but rather a “cost center.” Sales enablement leaders rarely have hard, non-subjective data to show the value of their work and the efficacy of their training programs. As champions of sales enablement, Luster provides sales leaders the data they need to expose enablement ROI for the first time. We want to give leaders a prescriptive and data driven way to coach, versus reactively catching skill deficiencies after a customer has already been impacted. Manual post-call review simply won’t cut it.

When it comes to sales practice specifically, until now, sales reps have been forced to rely on traditional and outdated role-play methods with limited feedback or worse, practice on their customers. That all changes with Luster. Through our proprietary AI discourse engine, we’re able to solve this problem by delivering hyperrealistic practice scenarios for each sales stage, buyer persona and deal size in a safe, engaging and fun environment, boosting sellers’ confidence and enabling sales teams to sell better and faster.

We had two different customers try Luster initially and even though the beta-test period was only two weeks, they very quickly requested a full enterprise roll out. They were both amazed at how specific the simulation was tailored to their product, process and methodology, and how easy the tool was to use. Sales reps, once finding out that their peers had access to Luster, started requesting it!

Taking The Lead, now in its third year, features iconic female leaders in tech. The show serves as a stage for them to spotlight their stories, their talent, and their tactics. And while it’s a show featuring women, it’s for everyone. The show was created initially at a prior company that I was the chief sales officer of, and we wanted to create a show to share content and ideas. Once I raised my hand to lead it, it took on the form that it is today. The show was so popular that we detached it from the prior company and our production company, Motion, brought it in-house as one of their main produced shows. I’m honored to highlight the experience and expertise of some of the most brilliant people that I ever have and ever will meet.

Episode number three, early on, remains one of the most impactful episodes we’ve ever done. My guest was the late Alison Hadden, a remarkable woman and tech executive who was facing terminal cancer. We not only focused on some incredible and tactical tips for go-to-market teams, but also covered the idea that in life, there is no time to waste, and how to focus on what matters. It’s a must-listen! Though truly, all of my guests have been phenomenal.

I love to travel, probably too much! My most memorable travel moment was when I was 13. My mother was the pianist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and my sisters and I were lucky enough to go on a European tour with them. Sightseeing Europe, playing board games backstage during the concerts and taking in the experience at such a young age was life changing.

My six-year-old, Lucas, is my reason for everything that I do. Raising a kind, funny and passionate human is more fulfilling than anything I could imagine. I’m also an avid fashion and animal lover!

I get asked a lot how I balance being a parent, living life and being a tech CEO. And I have a somewhat unique take.

It’s not about finding an ideal balance because ideal balance in perpetuity doesn’t exist. Abandon your quest for balance and instead, focus that energy on removing the true thief of joy… guilt. Don’t feel guilty of your success or having to prioritize yourself. Forgive yourself for the version of you that you have to create to survive and thrive. The reality is, you’re going to miss soccer games, be late to school plays, scramble to ask a friend to take your child to a doctor’s appointment or miss bedtime. You’re also going to miss that work meeting because it’s Kindergarten graduation, skip that happy hour because you’re tucking your child into bed and that’s your priority that night, miss a deadline because it’s summer break and there are only 24 hours in the day or let your team handle that product roadmap meeting because your little one is home sick. Remove the guilt you assign when you have to prioritize work, yourself and your family. I promise you, it will be worth it.